A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



all up and land them back again pantingly for a 

 fresh dash. 



Into this charivari the dog threw herself with 

 what to us was reckless spontaneity. The wind 

 blew her sideways, as she tried to obey the pack 

 above, bent down her tiller, so that she could not 

 make short turns, but she kept pace somehow 

 with the cohorts, sometimes lost entirely to view ; 

 and coming back along the home stretch to dis 

 appear utterly in the great bank, where we heard 

 her muffled barking, and occasionally saw her 

 tail sticking out and working like a semaphore. 

 While we stood there, not more than half a 

 score of the million leaves got away into utter 

 freedom, and it was absurd to see how little 

 they knew what to do with their freedom when 

 they obtained it. The silly things tried to roost 

 in the trees, as they had seen the birds do, 

 and the sullen old limbs shook them off and 

 seemed to say to them, &quot; Oh, be quiet ; when 

 you have seen as much of this as I have, you will 

 not get into such a twitter over it.&quot; I had seen 

 the same thing among human beings who were all 

 rounded up the same way by invisible forces ; but, 

 of course, it did not occur to me then that it 

 would have made a good Addisonian article for 

 the Spectator. 



As we came over the crest into the wood, the 

 revel went on above us. We could see the tops 

 of the oaks and chestnuts over our heads bending 

 and swaying and writhing, and here and there a 

 stray leaf was swirling away high up in solitary 



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